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B De Bella (2012)

by Alberto Ferreras(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Espasa

review 1: Reviewed by Sandra LopezReview:"B" is someone we can all relate to. She is all of the above and more--a woman who is not happy in her own skin; a woman whose body is not accepted by "skinny" society; a woman who is the "Mexican Burro" at her job (the only one who does any real work;) and, finally, like many of us, she is a woman desperately trying to climb up the corporate ladder for a better salary, a better lifestyle, a better everything. I liked "B." She was a funny, sassy broad that told it like it was. You can't help but feel bad for her at the way she gets treated because of her weight. No dates, no promotion, no reason to even be seen in the world. But then, suddenly, being a "comfort provider" for a select clientele awakens a new-found confidence in "B" that makes ... moreher see herself for the very first time. As the story progresses, we get to experience the kinds of clients she meets. Most of them were just plain weird; some were even kind of nasty. Reading this book made it feel like I was reading the diary of a "fat chick"--where I learned all about her hopes, fears, and insecurities about her self-image. By the end, I felt that "B" learned a great lesson we should all incorporate: "Change the things you can't accept; and accept the things you can't change." Overall, I enjoyed the laid-back writing style that you easily fall into. It was simple and straight-forward, although sometimes the writer tended to go off tangent in the story by explaining useless things like the Greek philosophy from high school. As I was reading this book, I couldn't help but feel impressed that a man could write "chick lit" with such precision and accuracy. Usually, men don't understand women. But Alberto Ferreras could. Way to go, man!
review 2: B would prefer not to be named Beauty. She's known she was fat since her parents left her with a terrible nanny, and she'd prefer not to have the name to live up to. She can't get ahead in her job because of her looks and she feels terrible when she hangs out with her skinny and confident best friend Lillian. B's unhappy and desperate when she meets Madame.And Madame thinks B would be perfect for her clients. She's a confident woman, ready to show B how gorgeous she is and how to find the men who will appreciate her figure. B doesn't want to be a whore, especially with her Catholic guilt, but Madame promises no sex . . .Which leads into: B AS IN BEAUTY is not a YA book. If you're cool with fetishes, you're probably old enough. If you're thinking, "What's a fetish?" or "That's the thing with feet, right?" you might want to wait a bit before picking this one up. I don't want to be held responsible for exposing the kiddies to Fetish Fuel. (Link may be NSFW.)For those who are old enough, it's an excellent novel. The romance is well done and touching. For those who have read it, you know what I mean when I say I think I'm going to find subway seats poignant from now on. (Bus seats in my case, since there aren't any subways near.) B's career in advertising and her career as a comfort provider are both given a reasonable amount of attention and I enjoyed how Alberto Ferreras resolved things.B works excellently as an overweight and Latina character without being defined by those things. Being Cuban American shaped her life and her descriptions of home life really pop, but that doesn't define her. (I did enjoy trying to translate the Spanish before I reached the English paraphrase.) I found her very relatable, especially as her work descriptions reminded me of some of my mom's complaints.Body image isn't just a problem for teenage girls, as shown by the number of adults who are participating in the Body Image Challenge. We need more women like B in art - women who know, or learn, they are beautiful without losing a pound. (Not saying anyone needs to stay at an unhealthy weight, but our society has such a distorted perception of what weight is healthy.) Believe me, I could enjoy the movie version of Bridget Jones's Diary far more if people just acknowledged that Renee Zellwegger looks awesome, not chubby. B is a breath of fresh air, and it helps that she's in a wonderfully written and entertaining novel. less

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